President Barack Obama gestures as he answers a question during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012. The president touched on various topics including the widening sex scandal, UN Ambassador Susan Rice and possibly meeting with his recent presidential rival Mitt Romney. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

TheDC Morning: Obama launches War on Women

1.) Obama launches War on Women— It was a stealth attack disguised as a defense of UN ambassador Susan Rice. But those who can read between the lines saw it for what it was. TheDC’s Nicholas Ballasy reports:

“In his first press conference since the election, President Barack Obama challenged Republicans who are calling for Watergate-style hearings on the terrorist attack in Benghazi to ‘go after me.’ Obama defended U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, whose remarks on Sunday morning news shows five days after the Sept. 11 attack have been widely criticized by Republicans. ‘She made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her,’ he said. ‘If Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. And I’m happy to have that discussion with them.’ ‘But for them to go after the U.N. ambassador who had nothing to do with Benghazi, and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous.'”

Let’s for the moment put aside the question of why the White House would send someone who had “nothing to do with Benghazi” on Sunday shows to discuss Benghazi. But did you catch the sexism? Can you imagine the president infantilizing a male cabinet secretary that way? He basically suggested Rice couldn’t fight her own battles. She needed a man to step in and fend off her critics. Mr. President, you just set back women a 100 years.

2.) Petition madness — President Obama’s White House instituted a policy where it would address all petitions posted to WhiteHouse.gov that received 25,000 signatures. After Tuesday’s election, inane secession petitions were posted. Now this, TheDC’s David Martosko reports:

“It requests a public display of everyone’s favorite wedding-reception dance — the Hokey Pokey — from America’s commander-in-chief. ‘We feel that in this time of despair, that President Obama should do the Hokey Pokey on national television during a special Presidential Address to the nation,’ the petition read. … The White House removed the petition after it attracted 617 signatures.”

Believe it or not, the secession petitions are probably dumber. Another recent petition taken down by the White House called for people to “punch Grover Norquist in the dick.” Perhaps the White House took it down so it first could be dealt with by Congress. Surely the president stands ready and waiting to sign such a bill into law.

“Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano told The Daily Caller that, during its investigation of former CIA Director David Petraeus and his biographer, the FBI appears to have wrongfully treated a simple domestic dispute like a national security or criminal matter. ‘David Petraeus didn’t betray his country,’ Napolitano said in a phone interview. ‘He betrayed his wife. Big deal.’ Napolitano said the federal investigation was ‘the use of law enforcement either for a personal vendetta that [Tampa military liaison Jill] Kelley pushed through her FBI agent connection, or a political vendetta – somebody wanting to silence, by embarrassing, humiliating and destroying the credibility of Petraeus.'”

“‘The joy of hate reflects people who get off pretending to hate something, or hate you in order to score political points,’ he explained to The Daily Caller in an interview. ‘I call them the ‘tolerati’ — you know, a group of people who claim to be tolerant except when they run into someone who disagrees with them. Then the joyous hate comes out and it’s directed almost always at you, but never at anybody else on their side. And the book is designed to kind of expose the phony outrage, make fun of it, and also try to teach you how not to fall into the same trap.'”

5.) Tweet of Yesterday — Jamie Kirchick: An idea: Let’s shoot rockets into the houses of every comfortable Western critic of Operation Pillar of Defense and see how they react